Letters to the Editor

Edited by Jim Buckley

“Shocked and disappointed”. Source: Getty Images

(The following is just a trickle of some of the many comments, observations, claims, and suggestions received by Santa Barbara Current. To enhance your reading enjoyment, please follow the Comment thread that appears immediately after each column. If you’d like to contribute a letter to the editor, please add your city/town in your comment.)

Boys in the Boat

Excellent article. I grew up in the neighborhood where the coach and shell maker lived. They were wonderful men, and the coach made the best decision of his life when he selected the junior team. In the book there was a full story of Joe being abandoned by his family. So sad

Dorothy Kistler 

Santa Barbara

More on the Boys

Thanks for the recommendation! Sounds like a good movie worth seeing with my daughter. They are so few and far between these days.

Eric Gordon

Santa Barbara

And One More

Well written Celeste! I have not yet seen the film, but I have heard the theme of team spirit, comradery, support, and willingness to work towards a "win-win goal” from other people. Perhaps some of our younger population feel they know what to do for a "win" but perhaps not a "win-win." This movie might be insightful for them. My husband and I will be making a date to see this movie.

Nanci Elliott

Santa Barbara

Experiential Travel

I just sent the U.S. Department of State $160 to renew my U.S. passport. Why bother? I'll just demand reciprocity from all qualifying borders [as Brian Campbell points out in his “Open Borders Experience”]. This really is an outrage, considering how hard it is to cross any other border around the world. Thank you for highlighting the current situation in this detail. 

Anyone try to get a Chinese or Indian visa lately? Both rigidly, even capriciously, control their own borders. Lessons learned.

J. M. Livingston

Santa Barbara

Open Border

We are on the same page, but it has not changed no matter which party is in office. There is one party: the corporate party. They like cheap labor. Politics is the entertainment arm of the military industrial complex. 

If you want to make change, seek to reach and empower more people, not exclude a whole group like the Democratic party or the Republican party or whoever.  

If we all work together, we win.  If you let the propaganda fool you, we are divided.

Start by not hiring illegals or going to restaurants where they are hired or buying food from corporate farms where they work. Yah, I know actually doing something about it is inconvenient. 

Buy from local farmers who hire legal workers. Pay a bit extra for cleaning and yard service. Make food at home or find out the hiring practices of your favorite restaurants.

Boycotts work. Voting? Not so much. 

Thank you for listening. 

Have a nice day. 

James

(Editor’s note: “Politics is the entertainment arm of the military-industrial complex” is a great line. I don’t know why you didn’t give a last name because your issues are reasonable and valid. We can agree that both parties pretty much abandoned our border, and that we, individually, can do a better job of protecting the jobs of U.S. citizens. However, Donald Trump was the first president in modern times to tackle border security head on, or even to take it seriously. He nearly succeeded in his efforts but was waylaid by the reluctance of many of his fellow Republicans, and resistance by the Democrats in Congress.

And then, of course, the election of 2020 put the simpleton who now inhabits the White House into the Oval Office who not only opened the border to anyone and everyone from around the world, but offered those who made the trip [and paid the cartels] free transportation, hotel lodging, cell phones, medical coverage, a debit card with a hefty balance, and more. All the while, leaving the homeless, the drug-addled, the mentally unstable, the forgotten and damaged military veterans out in the cold.

We can agree that boycotts are probably more effective than elections, but my guess is that if Republicans can sweep the three branches of government in this November’s election and work swiftly to establish a one- or two-day in-person voting mandate for all federal elections, we can begin to return to more responsible outcomes.

There is a reason for voting, even though the procedure has been adulterated into a shady mass-collection of “mail-in” ballots contest rather than one of a challenge between ideas and personalities. That reason is to right the system. – J.B.)

Re-envisioning the Immigration Process

Jim, your “Out With The Old” column “talkin’ ‘bout my generation” paints quite a dystopian picture. We are clearly not the Greatest Generation, but I would like to note the following. California alone presided over the fourth largest economy in the world and provides 65% of America’s fresh fruits and vegetables with its essential workers who are largely immigrants. With the unemployment rate at the lowest it has been in 60 years and falling birth rates large numbers of immigrants are a necessity in a growing economy and both Republicans and Democrats are now at least discussing what it will take to secure our borders and re envision the immigration process.

Jay Sullivan

Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: Trump had already figured out “what it will take to secure our borders.” As far as re-envisioning the immigration process? Well, now that we’ve impoverished the nation and its taxpayers by giving away the store to ten-million-plus intruders, something will and must be done. It may be, however, too late, particularly if Mr. Biden wins re-election. We’ll tackle more of your comments in upcoming issues.  – J.B.)

A Fan No Longer

I've always been a fan of yours but I'm a bit in a state of shock that you support Trump, especially in this public of a manner. I have always been a Republican and truly believe in the principles of the Republican Party, but Donald Trump is about as far from being a Republican as you can be. At best, he's an authoritarian and at the least, well, I won't go there. Regardless of either, he's an existential threat to the future of our country.

I try to listen to him, but the man is not someone I can support and have a hard time watching him read the teleprompter for more than 5 minutes (It's abundantly clear he can't speak). Nikki Haley is a candidate I do support, maybe Ron DeSantis but never Donald Trump. 

The beauty of our system is we have the right to disagree, but I am shocked and disappointed with your support of Trump, especially in this public of a manner. You're better than that, Jim.

Anonymous (at letter writer’s request)

Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: I support Trump because what the Democrats have done to him for the past seven years just cannot stand. I’d rather have DeSantis, especially if he promises to pardon President Trump, but Trump is owed his second term, and I’m not going to abandon him so that the dark side can accomplish its sleazy and corrupt mission of destroying the man and his family.

As far as Trump not being a “Republican,” I can’t argue with you about that, but everything he did and everything he passed during his administration has been on the Republican wish list forever. Maybe being “Republican” is not enough. So, don’t be “shocked and disappointed” that I want Trump to beat the guys who’ve crossed every crooked political boundary to tear down the man and his administration.

Oh, and one more thing: the “existential threat to the future of our country” is today’s Democrat Party, not President Trump or his millions of MAGA followers.

Happy New Year! – Jim)